Last year was one of my worst for this race.  I’d lost a lot of interest in cycling after a 6hr mountain bike endurance event and was about 4kgs over race weight.  I have no photos of 2016 and I did not post on the subject.  This year I was back on track.  80kg’s on day 1 after starting the week at 83.  The worry was that for the last week, my riding had felt pretty powerless so I was expecting to be dropped on the hills on every stage.  Again I ran the official website.  I did not create a race guide.  This year Crowe Horwath, a part of Findex was naming rights sponsor.  The Bass Coast Cycle Challenge gave away five entries into their ride and Wheel Heat provided encouragement awards.

The Plan

Assuming not dropped, have a crack at the sprint championship.  See if I can eek enough points to get first.

The Races

Day 1 / Stage 1 – Heyfield ITT – 6.5kms 43.3 kph – 2nd place

BIg JIm started 30 seconds ahead of me.  A good bunny that had zero danger of being passed.  If all went to plan, I would come second.

I was feeling pretty knackered after 45 seconds.  Big Jim seemed not to be getting away from me.  As I climbed the long hill at about the halfway mark, I developed a stitch and began to lose ground.  Jim got about 15 seconds on me in the end and JP almost nabbed me, riding 1 second slower than me.  333 Normalized Watts for 8 minutes is not too bad.

Stats – Stage 1

Day 2 / Stage 2 – Heyfield – 77.4kms 34.6kph – 3rd place

Stats – Stage 2

I spent way too much time on the front here.  A couple of the Bairnesdale riders seemed keen to have a go and Big jim and JP were about the only others to be seen at the front until the hills.

On the hills, I wound up at most 100m behind and nobody rode them hard so that was a relief.  It was looking like I was not going to be dropped.

At the end of laps one and two we were sprinting for points.  I managed second on both occasions.  Completing lap two, I was thinking it would be grand if we could finish now.

On the third lap Big JIm took off before the last KOM.  The bunch must have figured we’d catch him before it or not long after it.  That was not to be.  He used his superior time trialling skills to establish around a 45 second gap on us.  At this point Rob Monk assisted in some chasing.  About 300m before the final bend I’d gotten a little gap along with Daniel Bishop and we worked together to try to catch Jim.  In the meantime, the Warragul riders had slowed down the main bunch, so we had a handy gap.

We were unable to catch the lone break away. Our sprint for second was like the Criterium du Dauphine sprint Richie port has the night before.  I lead out, wound up a length down, got a run up, lunged and had no idea who won the sprint as it was very close. Daniel got it.  Nice job.  With my ITT and sprint points, I’m fairly comfortably in second and I’m leading the sprint competition.  Things appear to be going to plan.

Day 2 / Stage 3 – Warragul Criterium – 40.1kms 33.1kph – no place

Very foggy this morning.  There was soccer, tennis and netball and church goers in the area so some caution was needed until the fog cleared.  This happened about halfway through the race.

Two laps in, Daniel Bishop and Connor Bagot were allowed to ride off the front.  I rode at and easy tempo, trying to keep them within catching distance as Daniel was a danger to my GC.  Nobody else wanted to chase, so that was the end of that.  They faded away into the fog.

For our intermediate sprint, I had no legs.  The same went for the final sprint so no points for me.  Daniel won the stage pushing me down into third.

Stats

Day 2 / Stage  4 – Shady Creek – 67.8kms 33.3kph – 3rd place

Who spent a lot of time on the front?  Me.  Again.  This time I my sprint legs were there and I also got into a small break so I was able to grab a few sprint points and even a bunch of KOM points. I’d swear under oath I got first in the KOM on lap three, but apparently I did not. This did not affect the overall placings based on who came where as far as I remember so it’s all good.

After the first lap, Big Jim and did an easy sprint for the line “just in case’ points were assigned.

On the first KOM, Connor was supposed to be keeping Big Jim out of the points.  Heading to the line, no Connor.  I therefore had to come third as Big Jim was next to me.  After the first sprint at the end of lap two, I got a break established with Adrian Harper and one other.  This stayed away (as far as I remember) until after the KOM on lap three.

It seems that Big Jim and Ollie McClean caught up and then rode right past us.  Again, I was thinking not good.  The strongest rider was off the front and only team work would bring him back.

I wound up in no man’s land chasing these two. With two kilometres to go, I was cooked, but had a big enough lead to come across the line in third well before anyone else.  Ollie came first.  I reclaimed second, one point off first place and was well ahead in the sprint competition.

Stats – Stage 4

Day 3 / Stage  5 – Yinnar – 50.2kms 29.7kph – no place

Here I needed to keep Big Jim from getting any intermediate points and to finish top 5 and ahead of him to take to overall GC.  In the sprint competition, my only danger was Adrian Harper.  If he won both intermediate sprints, I could be reeled in.  Otherwise, that bit of the tour was sewn up.

Rob Monk and Jay Simons broke away on lap one and sucked up most of the points.  Neither were a GC danger, though with them absorbing the “big points”, my job of winning was made harder.

Adrian Harper kept me out of the sprint points, but with the break up the road, the sprint king crown was now mine.

I took off at the corner for the second KOM. Adrian gave chase and I just managed to hold him off.  That made me equal first (though second on count back).

In the sprint, again Adrian kept me from getting any more points.  This time I was tag teams as big Jim took off and was soon about 500m up the road!  Not again!  I gave chase.  Once we got onto the highway Daniel and Connor provided a lot of assistance and we caught Big Jim a few k’s from the KOM.

Before the corner to the KOM, Big Jim took off, clearly wanting to get back into the lead.  I was on him for all of five seconds and then pppsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.  Farrk!  I’d ridden over some sharp bit of rubbish on the side of the road.  There goes my almost newish $120 front tyre.  Connor was quick to give me is wheel (totally unexpected so thanks!) and Daniel was my super domestique from there.  We chased and chased and chased but it was race over. Big Jim held onto first. I came across the line in 9th, 50 seconds off the pace.

Power Stats – Stage 5

Summary

Given my race expectations, coming second overall was pleasing.  Winning the sprint champioships was very satisfying.  Grabbing KOM points was just crazy.  I don’t climb!  Perhaps I’ll get around to setting a new Annual Training Plan as I’ve sort of been winging my training since my 2014 win.

If I had won, it would have replicated my 2014 tour where I did not win any stages, but collected enough points to be victorious.

Final Results.

Thanks to my sponsor, Drouin Cycles – performance division.

Next week it’s off to the You Yangs for the Slightly Confused 3 Hr MTB Endurance race.

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